1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to data processing systems and more particularly to switching of data transmissions in a network.
2. Background Information
In a networking environment, it is typical that a plurality of devices will be linked together for the purpose of transmitting data from one device to another in the network. In a large network, it would be uneconomical to provide a specific data link connecting each device to each of the other devices in the network. In order to provide connectivity from each device to each of the other devices in the network in an efficient and economical manner, a plurality of methods have been developed.
One known method of distributing data between devices within a network is through switches. Switches may be utilized within the network to receive data from a plurality of devices and distribute the data to a plurality of devices to reduce the amount of data lines required to distribute data. To utilize switches to communicate between devices, each device has a specific address. For example, in an Ethernet switching environment, each device in the network has a Media Access Control (MAC) address, which uniquely identifies the device in the network. Frames of data are delivered to a MAC Destination Address (DA) and senders are recognized by a MAC Source Address (SA). Each switch, and each port on a switch, supports a finite number of MAC addresses. Ideally, the overall number of MAC addresses distributed by a switch should be large, so the switch can support a large number of devices.
In addition to supporting a large number of devices, a switch should comprise the ability to handle the transfer of large amounts of data through a network. For a switch to quickly handle the transfer of large amounts of data, link aggregation is utilized. Link aggregation allows a switch to support a higher bandwidth interface which increases the rate of data transfer. Link aggregation is a technique that allows parallel physical links between switches or between a switch and a server to be used simultaneously which multiplies the bandwidth between the devices. Link aggregation may be further defined as a method of grouping physical link segments of the same media type and speed, and treating them as if they are part of a single, logical link segment. For example, two 100 Mbps links between switches may be grouped into a link aggregation and treated as a single 200 Mbps link to create a higher bandwidth interface between the two switches.